Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-11-17
SUICIDE LINGG.
How Did He Get the Bomb?-The Coroner's
Verdict.


CHICAGO, November 1G--When the in
quest. over Louis Lingg was about to COM
mence, in the corOner's office, this morning,
three anonymous letters were produced,
addressed 10 some of the urOrs, and insin-
uating that the Anarchist had not commit
ted suicide, but had been blown up by one
Of the Jail attendants. No attention
was paid to the letter.
The first witness was the iailOr, Conrad
FOlz. The revolving circumstances in re-
latIon to the suicide were related in detail
by the jailor, whose testimony was supple
mented by statements from County Ply
sician Mayer, Turnkey Englehardt, Death
Watch O'Neil and John C. Klein, report
er. The mystery as to how Lingg could
have obtained dynamite, or where he might
have conc ealed it, was made the subject of
q few questions, but remained as dark as
ever. A verdict was rendered that Lingg's
death was brought about "by the explosion
of bomb about two inches long aud half
an inch in diameter and filled with dyna-
mite said bomb being exploded by his own
hand with suicidal intent"
A little sensation was developed NJ the
Lingg inquest to-day by the exhibition of
the three letters received by Jurors. The
letters implied that the turnkeys killed
Lingg, and were evidently written by the
same man, for the writing was alike. The
letter TO Juror Muller was az follows:
CITY, November L..
W., 4. J. NWitr:
DEAR SIR:-GOu are aware that you are
on the jury to inquire into the death of the
late Louis Lingg. Will you please take
particular notice of that Mr.. O'Neill
says, for it looks suspicious about him and
Henry Hogan finding so much about
Lingg when there were Others that was in
his cell rs much as they were. Now, did
.ONcill kill Lingg or not;
Yours,
J. II. WERE.
Jurors Bergman and Henry WernO re-
Ceived similar letters, although Mr.. Wer-
Nos correspondent signed himself "Amer-
lean. - Mr. BeTgmans communication had
the signature Of Citizen" The writing
was scrawly and evidently that of Ger
man. The jurors attached little sigDiti-
canoe TO the communications. Jailor Folz
testified that Lingg killed himself with q
small bomb three inches long. Mr.. Folz
exhibited half dozen twisted and blood
stained pieces Of gas pipe. These were
the pieces found in Iinggs cell. A
small bolt one aud a half inches long
plugged up one end OF the little bomb and
the rest contained dynamite Jailor Folz
described the finding of the bombs on Sun
day. 'On that morning." said Mr.. Folz,
Il made a search of Lingg's cell Jailor
Hogan went in first and followed 1t
was pretty dark and Hogan ran against
some obstruction. 1t fell over on the bot
tom, spilling out two bombs on the floor.
When we got quieted little we took the
box out 1t had false bottom and in
there we found two more bombs We
searched all the prisoners, and Lingg's cell
thoroughly, and how he got the bomb to
kill himself cannot say"
Sheriff MatsOn questioned Mr.. FOlz,
until he elected the fact, that no one bad
been near or could get near LiDgg, after
the four bombs were found, except the
two keepers. The Sheriff said that Lingg
must have had the bombs concealed about
his person somewhere. County Physician
Meyer, probably gave the correct place of
the concealment of the bomb, and that
was within the bomb makers body.
That is the only way in which he could
have concealed il without our knOwl-
edge" said the doctor, 'for we searched
everywhere" The jury seemed to
accept this theory as plausible. Will
liam Englehardt and John O'Neil, the
turnkeys who examine and pass package,
testified to the searching Of all fruit, etc,
sent to Lingg, the only new fact brought
out by them being that LiDgg was allowed
to smoke cigars after the bombs were found
in his cell. Sheriff Matson was on the
stand for twenty minutes. His theory was
that Lingg received the bomb with which
he killed himself through the screening,
that it was given him by some outside
party before the big find on Sunday, and
that he had concealed it in some myster-
ious manner about his person.